War and Peace vocabulary

5 units of measurement vocabulary

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5 [unit] words
score
Reaumur
hundredweight
tierce
league
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Reaumur

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Definition:
a nearly obsolete temperature scale once widespread in Europe, now used in only a few industries. To convert from Celsius just multiply by 0.80
for water: 0° = freezing and 80° = boiling
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Uses:
The climate, however, is not, truth to tell, bad, and we even have a few nonagenarians in our parish. The thermometer (I have made some observations) falls in winter to 4 degrees Centigrade at the outside, which gives us 24 degrees Reaumur as the maximum, or otherwise 54 degrees Fahrenheit (English scale), not more.*

Gustave Flaubert. Madame Bovary
*these conversions are totally nonsensical
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there were no special festivities, though the calm frost of twenty degrees Reaumur,** the dazzling sunshine by day, and the starlight of the winter nights seemed to call for some special celebration of the season.
** 13 degrees below zero, Fahrenheit.***— A.M.

Leo Tolstoy. War and Peace: 07 (Book Seven)
***Maude's conversion only makes sense if the values are negative, viz. -20 Reaumur = -13 Fahrenheit (besides, frost could not form at 20 Reaumur = 77 F). Possibly there is a typo in the eBook.
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